The HubSpot website platform (commonly referenced to as the COS) is a ‘next level’ platform for developing your website (you can compare the feature difference with Wordpress and Drupal here), but what is the difference between the two platforms when it comes to price?

We wanted to know too so we took an in depth look at the cost of each. So, let’s jump right in and talk about the costs involved with these two platforms:

License / Software

Wordpress

The Wordpress license is actually free and open source. It’s a the huge benefit of Wordpress and one of the main reasons it has become one the most popular CMS’s in the world.

HubSpot

HubSpot price their website platform based on two tiers: over 3,000 visitors per month and under 3,000 visitors per month.

For those with less than 3,000 visitors per month the cost is only £80 per month. For those with over 3,000 visitors the per month cost is £245.

Verdict: Wordpress take the lead! 1-0

Wordpress: £0

HubSpot: £80-£245

Hosting

Wordpess

As Wordpress is open source you can host it wherever you like - your own server, a £1.99 shared server or a really top end dedicated server. So to keep the piece on a like for like comparison basis I have picked a server which is comparable to HubSpot’s.

https://wpengine.com/ is highly recommended and an award-winning Wordpress host. Their middle their plan is $99 (£75) per month.

To keep thing like for like, HubSpot hosting includes a CDN (Content Delivery Network) which speeds up your website by deploying your content from data-centres around the globe.

https://www.maxcdn.com/ is a popular choice for Wordpress CDN and their middle tier CDN service is $29.25 (£23) per month.

HubSpot

The HubSpot Content Optimization System (COS) is fully integrated with Akamai’s content delivery network, global web acceleration and firewall technologies - making it a truly world class hosting and service delivery system.

HubSpot hosting and CDN is included in the license cost.

Verdict: HubSpot pulls one back! 1-1

Wordpress: £99.75

HubSpot: £0

SSL

Wordpress

Again, SSL costs can vary massively, but as Google is pushing SSL by biasing search results in favour of those using one, you are going to need one.

HubSpot provide ‘Green Address Bar’ level SSL’s, a high level of security and trust, as seen below on our site:

https://www.globalsign.com/ are well known and trusted for supplying SSL’s - their ‘Green Address Bar’ level SSL is £339 per year (£28.25 per month).

HubSpot

HubSpot’s SSL is an integrated, though optional component to the above hosting system. When certificates are added to the system, they are distributed globally across hundreds of servers and reserved IP addresses in order to ensure they continue to deliver with Internet scale, performance, availability, reliability and security.

It's worth noting that SSL is included free with purchases of the license.

Verdict: HubSpot takes the lead! 1-2

Wordpress: £28.25

HubSpot: £0

Total Cost

Wordpress

It’s very hard to find a comparable, true like for like comparison between the two platforms. With the setup you get on HubSpot, it’s difficult to compare when looking at Wordpress since it doesn’t have the same features.

But giving it a good go, like we have done above you are looking at a setup of around £128 per month for Wordpress to be somewhat comparable from a hosting, security and software viewpoint.

What this figure isn’t taking into account is the features you really just can’t price with Wordpress - personalisation and smart content isn’t possible as the Wordpress CMS is not underpinned by your marketing database, truly closed loop reporting is very hard to achieve and the efficiencies of having just one tool to control your digital marketing is difficult to calculate.

For general web hosting, it’s a toss up - and Wordpress is incredibly popular - but for marketers, HubSpot simply works the best.

HubSpot

HubSpot only have two levels of pricing £80-£245 - so it’s a lot more rigid than Wordpress but you have the peace of mind you have a world-class set up and know what you are going to pay.

My Verdict

If you are already paying for the HubSpot marketing platform then using the HubSpot Website Platform to develop on is a no brainer - to have closed loop reporting, personalisation and smart content for at worst £120 more and at best £60 cheaper. To me, the price difference either way is fantastic value for money.

If you are not already on the HubSpot marketing platform then the choice is more complex. I would advise, first of all, to look at your marketing needs, to see if HubSpot can benefit you - then assess the website platform secondly armed with this knowledge.

I’d also look beyond cost, as the cost difference isn’t huge, so I would buy based on features instead - which you can review here: